Thaumatology 12: Vengeance (27 page)

He needed to work quickly, utilise his backup plan to gain advantage while he could. When she reached the tenth layer his connection would be broken entirely.

Picking up the ornately carved ring resting on his desk, he focussed his will, becoming a conduit for the power driving through the cube. Slowly, the ring began to glow.

Battersea.

Lily crawled up to lie beside Ceri on the floor of the little shelter. Her nerves were still ringing from what she had done. She had never tried it before, but it had worked and it had felt…

‘Was that good for you,’ Lily mumbled.

‘It was…’ Ceri tried, stopped, took a breath and tried again. ‘You didn’t feed, you sort of…’

‘I pushed power into you. I thought I could do it, but I’ve never tried it. I thought I could heal… Didn’t think it would feel like that. It was… wild.’

Ceri propped herself up on an elbow. ‘You felt what I felt?’

‘I… felt like my brain was on fire and there was liquid gold in my veins and stars in my eyes…’

Ceri giggled. ‘Uh-huh. I guess you get a backlash for “misusing” your demonic powers. I mean, I feel wonderful.’

‘So I can heal people, but it’s exhausting and I can’t move for five minutes while my body stops trembling.’

‘Sounds like a good pay-off to me.’ Ceri pushed herself upright and reached for her jeans. ‘Well, I feel like I can go another few rounds with an enchanted cube. Thanks, love.’

Dressed, they walked out of the hut to discover that Michael had arrived with Jehoel. The angel was looking sicker than he had the last time Ceri had seen him; his skin was paler and his eyes had a rheumy quality to them. Despite his nature, he did not seem especially bothered by what the two women had obviously been doing.

‘You are attempting to destroy the mechanism causing my disconnection from Him?’ Jehoel asked.

‘Uh-huh. It’s hard work, but I’m making progress.’

Jehoel gave a nod. ‘I will wait. I will provide assistance where I can.’

Ceri had no idea what assistance the angel could give, but she smiled and nodded, and then walked back into the generator. Something felt wrong almost immediately.

‘Does it feel… off to anyone else?’ Ceri asked as she crossed into the inner circle where Gwyn and Ed were keeping watch.

‘Something began happening about five minutes ago,’ Gwyn said. ‘It’s low level and doesn’t seem to be undoing what you’ve done, so we decided not to disturb you.’

‘We think something is drawing power from the cube,’ Ed added. ‘From the generator field really, but via the cube.’

Ceri frowned. ‘Somehow I don’t think that’s a good thing. I’d better get on with this. What’s next?’

‘The next sequence is a barrier enchantment,’ Ed said, checking his notes. ‘Uh… Yes, you’ll need to initiate a resonance disparity between the fourth, seventh, and tenth glyphs.’

Ceri settled back onto her stomach on the concrete floor and reached for the cube.

~~~

‘Something’s wrong,’ Ceri said. Her brow knitted as she examined the trail of glyphs she was currently working on. ‘There’s something missing.’

She felt Ed crawling in beside her, peering over her shoulder at the cube resting on the concrete between her outstretched hands. ‘What can’t you see?’

‘The seventh in the sequence. It should be here…’

‘It’s on the face on the other side.’

Ceri turned her head to the left and immediately saw what she was looking for. Her head sagged onto her arm.

‘Take a break, Ceridwyn. Gwyn and I have both been out. Even Lily has had a coffee.’

‘Coffee,’ Ceri breathed. ‘We’re so close.’

‘You’re tired and making mistakes. You’re lucky you were confused about where that glyph was rather than thinking you knew and being wrong.’

Nodding, Ceri slid her hands free and climbed to her feet. Lily rose at the same time and followed her out.

‘It’s almost seven,’ the half-succubus said as they got clear of the circle.

‘Shit, really? No wonder I’m tired.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Lily looked over at Cheryl. ‘Get some coffee ready for her. We’ll make sure she’s not too dangerous and then she can sit down for a while.’

In the hut, Lily pushed Ceri to her knees, lifted her T-shirt over her head, and set to work on the muscles across her shoulders and neck. ‘You’re pushing yourself too hard,’ the redhead commented.

‘Probably, but we need this thing defused. He was up to something before I cut off that layer. Drawing power somehow.’

‘Why?’

‘No idea, which worries me more than a little.’

‘I can tell. I could use your neck muscles to drive nails.’

‘Huh. You should take Michael with you when you go to work.’

‘I was thinking I’d call Carter and…’

‘We’re getting to the really difficult bits, Lil. I’d be happier if both of you were across the river. If I
really
screw up it won’t make much difference, but the moving water will provide a bit of defence against a small mistake.’

‘Ceri…’

‘Please, Lily.’ Ceri’s voice was pleading. ‘If you’re here… I’ll worry. I’ll second-guess myself. When it’s done I’ll come over to the Tir. I think we’ll all need a drink.’

‘If you get yourself killed I’ll murder you, you know? Put your shirt on, you’re barely making the thaumometers twitch.’

Cheryl handed Ceri a mug of coffee and a plate with two very thick sandwiches on it. ‘You haven’t eaten either,’ she said. ‘And I’ve got a second mug of coffee poured for when you drain that one in one gulp.’

Ceri gave her a grin and then proceeded to do just that. Then she picked up a sandwich half and bit into it. ‘Michael,’ she said around the food, ‘you’re going to the club with Lily. When we get wrapped up here I’ll come over with Gwyn and Ed.’

‘You want us out of the way,’ he stated flatly.

‘I… Okay, yes. It’ll help me concentrate.’

The werewolf gave a slight shrug. ‘I don’t have to like it, do I?’

‘Lily doesn’t.’

‘I don’t,’ Lily agreed.

‘As long as I don’t have to like it, I guess we can go. If it’s going to make you less likely to make mistakes.’ Ceri nodded as she stuffed the last of the first sandwich into her mouth and reached for the second coffee mug. ‘It’s a good thing Twill isn’t here to see you eating like that.’

‘I’m starving,’ Ceri said after swallowing. ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me I hadn’t eaten anything?’

‘I did,’ Lily said. ‘Gwyn did. Ed did. You muttered about being in the middle of something every time.’

Ceri grabbed the second sandwich. ‘Okay, we’ve established I’m a moron. You can stop hitting me over the head with it.’

‘As your hinita, I reserve the right to tell my Shivika when she’s being stupid. Call it a personal service.’

Ceri decided that it was better to shut up and eat than respond.

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Deirdre Cotton sat at the piano in the Cheltenham Grand Hotel’s lounge, her fingers shifting over the keys on automatic. This was
not
her kind of music, but if she was going to college in the autumn then she needed all the money she could get. The job at the hotel did not pay that much, but it would all go into her bank account, and she had no doubt it would all get spent faster than she had earned it.

The audience was, as usual, largely unappreciative. There were some men who looked in her direction and smiled, but she had no doubt that that was purely down to her looks. She was wearing a short, strapless dress which showed off her cleavage and her very long legs. Her rich, red hair was piled up into as best an up-do as she could manage. She was a beautiful woman and men looked at her a lot when she dressed to be seen. Generally she wanted to hide.

Something, an odd sensation at the back of her skull, made her look around. In the lounge doorway there was a man, a very tall man with oriental features, and he was watching her intently. She shivered a little and turned back to her keyboard, flipping the page in her music and segueing into a slightly more upbeat tune.

The man had been odd. Odd, definitely. He had been standing there with his right hand jammed into one of the pockets of his jacket, which seemed a strange way to stand, but the look in his eyes had been the really peculiar thing. It was like he did not know whether to laugh or burn down the building.

The weird tension she had been feeling vanished and she risked a quick glance at the door. The man was gone and Deirdre was very glad of that.

Battersea, London.

Ceri’s fingers shifted over the surface of the cube contacting precise glyphs and leaving a small charge behind on each one. The manipulation of positive and negative thaumitons had to be precise, carefully balanced. Done exactly right it would cause the complex, four-dimensional sphere the runes described to collapse in on itself and she would be through to the last layer.

Of course, she reflected, if she did it wrong she would probably not live long enough to realise she had made a mistake.

On the third hand, the resulting detonation would be relatively small, if intense. She was sure the containment mechanisms of the generator would block any effects reaching the outer room. That was why she had asked Gwyn and Ed to leave before starting on it. Well, she had asked, they had said they were staying, and she had said she would not make a move until they were safe. Gwyn had more or less had to drag Ed out; she had become used to knowing when Ceri could be persuaded otherwise and when to let her be stubborn.

‘All right you son-of-a-yish boradgi,’ Ceri muttered, ‘get your widder-begotten hide out of my way.’ Her right index finger tapped once on one of the uppermost runes and there was a shimmer of light from the cube. A faintly glowing, reddish sphere of light expanded outward for a second and Ceri bit her lip. ‘Oh shit,’ she said. And then the sphere collapsed inward, vanishing into the cube with an audible pop.

Hauling herself to her feet, Ceri headed for the outside of the generator. She was going to need her wits about her for the last stage.

Soho.

‘Quit worrying,’ Michael said, his hands cradling a tumbler of whiskey.

‘How am I supposed to do that?’ Lily replied, giving him a glower. ‘You’re worried. You never drink this much.’

‘Exactly. I’m worrying at least enough for two people, so you don’t have to.’

‘It doesn’t work like that.’

‘All right… You’re too pretty to be worrying. It makes your brow furrow. I don’t want to see your brow furrowed, I want to see the gorgeous face that belongs to the half-succubus who
will
be driving both me and Ceri insane later.’

Lily looked at him and then, despite herself, grinned. ‘Have you been taking lessons from Carter?’

‘I can’t hang around with him this long without some of it rubbing off.’

‘Okay, I’ll promise not to frown if you lay off the booze. It impairs the functions I want fully functioning when we get home.’

Michael grinned wolfishly at her. ‘Deal.’

Carter appeared beside them, back from the office. ‘Cheryl called,’ he said. ‘Ceri’s taking a break for coffee before she starts on the last layer. Now might be a time for a quick prayer to Luperca, Michael.’

‘If Luperca’s even thinking about this,’ Michael replied, ‘she’s already watching. Nothing I say is going to make a difference. I’ll just cross my fingers.’

Battersea.

‘I swear the thing’s trying to scare me to death,’ Ceri said as she sipped her coffee. ‘That last one tried to make me
think
I’d screwed up before it collapsed.’

‘The sphere expanded first?’ Ed asked. ‘Had I been there I could have told you that was normal.’

‘Not fast enough to stop me peeing myself. Uh… not literally. Well, I can’t do the next bit without you two. You’ve got the mirror?’

Gwyn picked up a small wand with a circular mirror mounted on the end from the table they were sitting at. ‘The bomb disposal people brought it over about an hour ago,’ she said.

‘What
exactly
is that for?’ Cheryl asked. ‘It doesn’t look terribly magical.’

‘It’s not,’ Ceri replied. ‘We don’t know what’s on the underside of the cube so we’re going to have to lift it and then look under it. We want to move it as little as possible, so… mirror.’

‘This really is like bomb disposal.’

‘Uh-huh, and we’re trying to disarm a nuke.’ She drained her mug and got to her feet. ‘Come on, let’s get this over with.’

Five minutes later Ceri, Gwyn, and Ed were playing a rather dangerous game of Twister in the generator’s core. Ed knew the enchantments the best, so he was in charge of the mirror. That meant he was balanced over the two women, in rather close proximity, while they took a side of the cube each and, very carefully, inched it off the concrete.

With the barest gap under it, Ed used the mirror to look at the floor as best he could, then summoned up a sort of light wand from one finger to flash into the gap. He let out a breath which gave the suggestion he had been holding it.